Progressive gaming machines have become very popular. Known progressive slot machines contain jackpots that increase every time a player plays the slot machine. An individual progressive slot machine has a self contained jackpot, wherein the jackpot grows with every play. A linked progressive includes two or more slot machines connected to a common jackpot, each of which individually contribute to the jackpot. The machines usually take a percentage of the player's bet, such as 10%, and add it to the jackpot. The jackpots can reach sizeable amounts such as $1 million before a player hits or wins the jackpot. Such sizeable jackpots are very attractive to players. Furthermore, as the jackpot grows, so does overall payout percentage of the game.
Regardless of the type of progressive, known games typically require the player to play the maximum bet to be eligible to win the progressive jackpot. Even on a single payline dollar machine, the maximum bet can be $5 (max bet on most slot machines is 5 credits per payline). Many players who are not willing to wager such an amount, or consistently willing to wager such an amount, are thus excluded from having an opportunity to win the progressive jackpot and enjoy its associated payout increase. A known progressive slot machine that requires a max bet to enable the player to win a jackpot is a Megabucks® game by IGT, the assignee of the present invention.
Another known progressive slot machine is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,947,820 (hereafter “the '820 patent”), which issued on Aug. 4, 1998, and which is also assigned to IGT. The '820 patent discloses that the jackpot can be preset to an amount more than any other progressive award of the associated game. Preferably, however, the top award jackpot is a progressive value that increases as a function of each coin deposited in the machine. The '820 patent discloses that the player wins the progressive jackpot by successfully entering a bonus game and successfully playing the bonus game.
The '820 patent also discloses a secondary progressive game, wherein the player obtains letters of a phrase or pieces of a puzzle by randomly generating letter or puzzle piece outcomes. As the player accumulates letters or pieces, the game accumulates a bonus value. If the player completes the phrase or puzzle, the game enables the player to play a second bonus game. In the secondary bonus game, the game designates the number of picks that the player has from a progressive award pool based on the bonus value, e.g., one pick if the bonus value is less than 2000 credits, two picks if the bonus value is between 2000 and 2999, etc.
The secondary game is progressive because if the player walks away from the game before completing the phrase or puzzle, the game, rather than resetting the phrase or puzzle to an initial state, enables the next player to finish the uncompleted phrase or puzzle. The next player also inherits any accumulated bonus value.
Both the jackpot progressive and the secondary game enable a player to build potential awards as game play continues, although the secondary game enables the player to realize the potential awards much more frequently than does the jackpot progressive. The jackpot progressive has a very low success or hit rate and is typically a very high return game. Both types of games and more particularly the secondary game enable the player to supplement wins or offset losses experienced in the base game of the gaming device. In either case, players enjoy progressive and potential award building type games because they add variety to the gaming experience. A need therefore exists to provide a higher success or hit rate progressive gaming device, which enables a player to build potential awards as game play continues, and which enables the player to realize the potential awards relatively frequently.